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Jazzmaster Study

Owing partially to my love of bands such as Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine and Nirvana (along a whole host of others including The Jesus Lizard, Mudhoney etc.) I recently got my hands on a new electric guitar, the wonderful Fender Jazzmaster Modern Player. It is a cheaper model than an American Jazzmaster (by half!) but a step up from the cheaper Squire models that Fender also produce. I love the beefy yet brittle sounds that the humbucker pickups produce and I adore the offset body, something that is slightly different from the normal Stratocaster or Les Paul guitar bodies. It fits comfortably against my own body and it isn’t a guitar that is afraid of a good thrashing during the throes of emotive playing.

The Jazzmaster guitar is, of course, now a marker for slightly alternative rock bands after it failed to be marketed to jazz musicians in the late 50’s, but this is a versatile guitar and I’m having a lot of fun trying different tones and techniques. It also looks particularly beautiful so I’ve been having fun trying to photograph this legend of a guitar. The following photographs are shot on a 1963 Pentax S1a camera with black and white film.

The hardware. Photograph by the author.

Headstock. Photograph by author.

High notes. Photograph by author.

Jamie. Photograph by author.

Jamie II. Photograph by author.

The physicality of music. Photograph by author.

If the photographs are used elsewhere please credit as appropriate and state the author of this site as the photographer.